Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Nal Sarovar the winter destination of Flamingo - State Bird of Gujarat

Since I moved to Vadodara in 2010 I have been waiting for a chance to visit and click flocks of Flamingos. I wasnt lucky till this February. I had chance to clicke couple of flamingos before but they were all very few to be called as flock. My first sighting of Flamingo flock was on 14th March 2010 at Pocharam near Hyderabad.

Nal Sarovar is one the very well know wetland to spot and view Flamingos, its located at 40 to 50 odd kms from Ahmadabad

I visited Nal Sarovar on 3rd Feb 2013, this was my 2nd visit and I was not expecting to spot Flamingos as I had very bad experience on my previous visit, when the locals misguided and we ended up sight seeing ourselves.

There were many changes at the wetland this time, it was very well organised. First and foremost being that they have created a buffer zone where they were not letting the visitors/tourist to drive in their vehicles. There was parking and the ticket counter where they issued tickets for entering the wetland area. Good part is ticket costs just 25 INR per head and 100 INR for still camera. Entry point is around a kilometer away from the main waterbody. To reach the water body one can walk, or take a camel cart or take a shared 6 seater car. 6 seater car charges 10INR per head one way, where as Camel cart will cost you a 5 INR per head one way.

Even before you reach the ticket counter the guide will flock you to get their boat services with their tall claims. You have to be careful while dealing with them and you have to make sure that you only pay half of what you have agreed to before getting on to the boats, tell them that rest you will pay after returning from the ride only if you have got to spot the Flamingos.

If you are lucky and have reached the wetland very early and are one of the first visitors of the day then there are chances that you will get to view the Flamingos near to the shore. If you are late by even 30 mins boat might need to travel long distance say a 8 to 10 kms minimum before you spot the Flamingos. We took around 2 hours before we spotted Flamingos.